Education Week - June 9, 2021 - 24

18
Where Did the Term 'Asian
American' Come From?
19
Compassion Fatigue
Is Overwhelming Educators
Robert Neubecker for Education Week
How Can We Rethink Report Cards?
The pandemic requires deep reflection on our data collection
T
o be honest, I kind of hate
the end of the school year.
I don't particularly enjoy
the raucous behavior that
accompanies the final
weeks of school. I also
am not fond of saying
goodbye to the wonderful little humans that I
have grown to know and love over the course
of the school year.
But the one thing that every year brings
me a great deal of stress and hand-wringing
is completing student report cards. How
can I possibly reduce the complexity of each
student's social, emotional, and academic
learning to a couple of letters per standard?
Report cards are a staple of the American
school system. One would be hard-pressed
to find a student in the United States that
didn't celebrate, dread, or perhaps even
intentionally conceal a report card sent
home from school.
Parents also anxiously anticipate grades
sent home on report cards, often doling
out rewards or punishments based on their
child's marks. It is no surprise how common
it is for well-meaning parents to incentivize
high marks when report cards are often
viewed as a possible indicator of a child's
future success in life.
And rightly so. It turns out, it is not only
anxious parents who look closely at report
cards. According to 2019 Forbes reporting
on college admissions, " Students' academic
achievements-which include grades,
strength of curriculum, and admission test
By Lory Walker Peroff
WALKER PEROFF is a 4th grade
teacher at Waikiki Elementary
School in Honolulu, where she lives
with her husband, two energetic
daughters, three chickens, two
ducks, and one peahen.
scores-constitute the most important factors
in the admission decision. " In no uncertain
terms, data collected and disseminated on
report cards can make or break a student's
access to higher education as well as increase
(or decrease) the likelihood of future
successes in life.
estimated 40,000 children across the United
States lost a parent to COVID-19. Racial
reckonings spread throughout the country.
Despite all the immense changes in
students and teachers' lives, one thing hasn't
changed. The report card I will send home
with students in two weeks is exactly the
same as the one I have sent home for the past
10 years. This is not only unfair but illogical.
How can we use the same way to record data
given the unusual circumstances this year
has presented?
This year calls for deep reflection of how
Teachers across the nation are in some
ways writing their students' futures on
report cards. With so much on the line, it is
no wonder report cards fill me with anxiety.
The trepidation that accompanies report
card time has reached another level this
year. Students and teachers alike have had
to pivot with head-spinning frequency from
online school to hybrid settings to face-toface
instructions with social distancing, all
while surviving a global pandemic. With the
rise in unemployment that accompanied the
pandemic, many students endured changes
in their home life as well as school life. An
24 | EDUCATION WEEK | June 9, 2021 | www.edweek.org/opinion
we collect data as well as the actual data
collected. The first component of the report
card is often attendance. Teachers take roll
call and mark down which pupils are present
and which are absent. But as the pandemic
blew off the doors of the classroom, roll
call looked different. In many schools,
pandemic safety measures necessitated that
students attend school virtually for at least
some portion of the year. While (virtual)
attendance remained a requirement, not
all students had equal access to the space,
technology, and family support to attend
school in this new way.
Students who already had access to quality
technology, robust internet connectivity,
and guidance at home were more likely to
attend school while others lacking resources
missed school through no fault of their own.
The pandemic has shed a bright light on this
inequity that can no longer be ignored.
Attendance and grades are connected.
In a typical school year, students work hard
to earn the marks recorded on their report
cards. This year, again, is different. Students
lacking technological resources struggled to
complete assignments and therefore made it
harder for teachers to truly assess learning.
In my own experience, an increase in missing
work has made grading exponentially more
complicated.
Also further invalidating this year's grades,
some reports suggest that cheating to attain
coveted report card grades may have been
made easier and more common by virtual
learning. Truly assessing learning this year
has been radically different, but the way we
record learning on report cards has remained
unchanged.
So, what now? Far from having the answers,
my head is swimming with questions.
How can we create a more equitable way to
record student learning? In what ways is bias
present in my own grading practices? How
can reporting systems used in public schools
across our nation increase (not decrease)
opportunities for all our students?
Teachers, administrators, and
policymakers need to take a deeper look
at how to promote equity in our reporting
systems to best meet the needs of all our
learners. There are many things that this
year will be remembered for; ignoring the
opportunity to deeply rethink attendance
and grading policies recorded on report cards
should not be one of them. If we don't all
come together to do what is right for all our
children, this lack of action will be a stain on
our own permanent records. 
http://www.edweek.org/opinion
Education Week - June 9, 2021

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